neat heat sink

I have had some of these. I beat the copper out of them and scrapped em. Money is cooler.

That thing is pretty! Are the fins longer on one part of it? What was it on???

The ones I had were all from servers. I believe I got 2 dell servers out there with those kind in there. As Mick stated they got heavy plugs of copper in them. And yes they are very pretty! I believe I posted some of the ones I found. I had some heatsinks that were straight up copper. No Alum.

Right, ok, so I guess they had a fan on top. There are some that are even more amazing, where each fin is bifurcated. It's a good way to get a lot of surface area for cooling.

I have sold them as aluminum too many times. How might one "beat" the copper slug out?
I see them with heavy copper plates on the bottom as well and I sadly leave them on as well
and put them in with the rest of the aluminum. I am an e-scrapper "hobbyist" and not a full
timer in this trade.

Yeah, I have one that is 100% copper, going to try and get #1 copper price for it. The ones with copper bottems and tubes I sell as aluminum/copper rads.

Originally Posted by Mick

I put the aluminum part in a vice and use a grinder to cut the part holding the copper. Then it pops out easy. Otherwise, I could beat on that copper slug forever and it was so tight, it wouldn't budge.

I put it on its side & put the blade of a cold chisel in between the Ali fins & bash it a couple of times. This warps the Ali a bit, loosening the grip on the Copper slug. Then I use a steel punch & hammer to push out the slug.

I put them in the vice and use the saw zaw to cut one side and out it comes with one hard hit works every time.

I might pop the copper out and hold on to the aluminum.

you guys might have some luck freeing them up by putting them on a hot plate or in an oven... (in front of your heater in the winter)

copper expands slower than aluminum, so it had the potential to fall out on its own.

other method might be putting it in the freezer, after it has stabilized, pull it out and let it sit, the aluminum should return to room temp faster, making it a looser fit. I can push this one back and forth about .050" at room temp with my hands.


work smart not hard. I'm going to see if I can figure something out to do with it.

Yea just set it up to where the copper can fall and beat/punch it on out of there. Comes out fairly easy. It wasn't built to not get beat up. It was built to be cool.

Originally Posted by lousypirate

I might pop the copper out and hold on to the aluminum.

you guys might have some luck freeing them up by putting them on a hot plate or in an oven... (in front of your heater in the winter)

copper expands slower than aluminum, so it had the potential to fall out on its own.

other method might be putting it in the freezer, after it has stabilized, pull it out and let it sit, the aluminum should return to room temp faster, making it a looser fit. I can push this one back and forth about .050" at room temp with my hands.

work smart not hard. I'm going to see if I can figure something out to do with it.

Yay, differential thermal expansion. I was thinking about that too. Aluminum's coeff of expansion is almost 1.4 x that of copper.

To get the plug out I used a impact socket and beat on it. The heat sick that have the flat copper piece below the alum is kind of a pain

Originally Posted by FLimits

Originally Posted by lousypirate

I might pop the copper out and hold on to the aluminum.

you guys might have some luck freeing them up by putting them on a hot plate or in an oven... (in front of your heater in the winter)

copper expands slower than aluminum, so it had the potential to fall out on its own.

other method might be putting it in the freezer, after it has stabilized, pull it out and let it sit, the aluminum should return to room temp faster, making it a looser fit. I can push this one back and forth about .050" at room temp with my hands.

work smart not hard. I'm going to see if I can figure something out to do with it.

Yay, differential thermal expansion. I was thinking about that too. Aluminum's coeff of expansion is almost 1.4 x that of copper.

I've been playing with thermal expansion at work a lot lately... can't say it isn't fun, but I feel like I should have better luck with a cardboard box understanding what I'm talking about

I tried the freezing method. It didn't help for the ones I have. I had them supported and hit with a good sized hammer and punch. They laughed at me. Heat may do better. 50 ton press may do even better.